Never say die Pistons come up short again

In what looked like a replay of Tuesday night’s game in Los Angeles, the Motown Sound was reduced to a whisper and a 20 point deficit after three quarters, then after a furious late rally (which cut the lead to one) fell short to the Blazers in Portland 87-81. Rodney Stuckey led the team with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and, 5 assists but shot a horrible 6-21. Charlie V seemed poised to erase his nightmare performance against the Lakers but picked up 2 quick fouls in first quarter. The Pistons will have two days off before continuing the trip in Utah on Saturday night.

Key points of the game:

The Blazers led by 4 after one, then 10 at the half, before stretching it to 20 after 3.

The Pistons used all three rookies in the fourth to mount the furious comeback which included a 10-0 run and outscored Portland 31-17.

With the Blazers leading 78-77 with over a minute to go, the Pistons couldn’t secure a rebound which landed in Steve Blake’s hands. He would later in the possession hit a three to put the Blazers up 81-77, which put the Detroiters to bed.

Someone tell Rodney Stuckey that he doesn’t have to force the action for himself all the time. It’ll be nice to set table for others every now and then.

Photo/Getty Images

Pistons used a “tall ball” line-up to make the Blazers sweat this one out.

Ben Wallace had a quiet 12 rebounds.

I’m starting to come around to the thought that maybe the offense is better with Bynum on the floor.

Charlie V scored 20 points, including a huge three and layup late to cut the lead to one, despite picking up some cheap fouls early. However, he could’ve kept that turn and fade-a-way three point attempt with 10 seconds.

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14 Responses to "Never say die Pistons come up short again"

Kuester has a nice rotation, he starts with the best players available, backups them right, maybe some misunderstanding with the fans about Maxiell’s playing time, but coach’s trying to make this team work the right way.

And Stuckey is not a kind of person who is a willing learner or a willing passer. He was a ball hog when he came to the league, he is at the same spot now, developing himself in another direction, his ego is telling him to shot when he’s open, because every game that he plays, as any other player in a team, he wants to win. And if you have no combinations, plays, that are fluently trained, if you don’t beleive in your teammates, if you are overconfident – you take the shot by yourself. It’s 14 on the clock and he didn’t see a good movement yet? He won’t make a movement happen, he just pulls up. He is a ball hog because he beleives to be a true leader by taking shots, because his ego tells him there’s no way to win with something different but his Wade-like ability.
that was about his shot selection. now it’s about driving.
That’s why we are so confident that Stuckey must be benched, Will Bynum must be a starter.
Will is not a true PG that we need in our system, but he is a driving machine and when he drives, he always does it seeing a possibility to make a good pass to the open man, that’s why Pistons are clicking right when he’s on the floor.
When Stuckey drives, he can jump into people, 2-3 men under the rim, trying to make a shot, not pass it.
Kuester’s fault is that he’s trying to tell Stuckey how to play (because I don’t beleive that he didn’t try to) and Kuester did not succeed in his teaching yet.
WHEN’S RIP COMING BACK?
Is this a sigh that Joe D is trying to make a deal with someone? Minor injury and RIP is out for so long, wtf is that? He told to a reporter that we be back on tuesday, game vs LAL, but he didn’t. And we’re still guessing if he starts to play with us in Utah.
Look at the updates: day-to-day, then the first week of Nov, then the middle of Nov, then the ending of Nov. What is going on, people? I knew LAC should make some moves, because their stadium in empty and the team is bad. But maybe they know when Griffin comes back and will try to get RIP for Chris Kaman?)))

So, last night was pretty hard to watch for the most part. Our 3 guard line up just got torched in the 3rd. We have no inside the paint offense. I mean its pretty sad to watch our lack of offense with our bigs. I mean there were a couple of flashes from Kwame but other than that it was pretty miserable.

I disagree with Rashit about benching Stuckey. Bynum played just as bad and forced the issue just as much as he did. By the third quarter I was shaking my head because of our lack of ball rotation and play making. That can be attributed to all 3 of the guards on the floor, but also the fact that they don’t have any bigs to pass the ball to inside.

If we don’t find an answer to our inside woes I’m afraid that teams will just game plan our guards and shut us down. Its not hard for opposing teams to do this when our bigs have a hard time make 2 footers.

I’m not sure that the return of rip or tay makes us a better team currently. I have been preaching that Bynum start and give us the minutes, I think he’s a superstar. I’m not sure stuckey produces well off the bench though. Bynum puts up the same numbers in half the minutes.

As always, i’ll preach that we need a for real center, so I’m thinking rip and tay for Kaman or equal.

when rip is back that will be an adittional 15 to 20 more points for the pistons which would result in more winds they spread the floor better. cant wait . it was nice to see tay showin some support. go pistons

No one should be surprised by what’s happening here. They went into the season weak in the front court and they still are. The reason the guards have such a hard time is because everyone knows they don’t have a legit threat in the paint, so they can collapse on guards. Why is Wilcox not seeing that much time? I thought he looked great in pre-season. Bottom line is that until they get another good front court player to go alongside CV they’re going to struggle. The way the East is looking currently there are a lot of improved teams. When April and May come around we might be on the outside looking in.

Are you kidding? They just offered a nice contract to Rondo because he is a kind of franchise player and he keeps progressing. They will never give a good sniper such as Ray Ray, even he is old, and incredible, one of the best in the conference Rondo for a ball hog + RIP who is old too.
No chance